Mobile devices proliferate all aspects of daily life and are usable for telecommunications. Users with mobile devices frequently travel to a variety of places for a variety of purposes. It is conceivable that regardless of what or where a place might be, if there is a human user in that place, it is very likely that the user has a mobile device on the user's person or otherwise available to the user with which to establish a telecommunications call (hereinafter, “call”).
A call is any suitable method of telecommunication, including but not limited to audio telephonic communications, video telecommunications, textual messaging, taptically or haptically telecommunicating information, and generally telecommunication of data in these and other forms. Any type of mobile device can be used for a call. A mobile device is capable of relocating from one location to another as the user associated with the mobile device moves from one location to another. As some non-limiting examples, the mobile device can take the form of a cellular phone, a smartphone device, a tablet computer, a portable computing platform, a wearable device, and the like.
A typical call begins with a calling user (hereinafter, “caller”) dialing a number associated with a mobile device that is associated with a called user (hereinafter, “callee”). A service provider connects the call between the caller's telecommunication device and the callee's mobile device using one or more service provider systems. In some cases, the caller selects a callee's name, such as from a phonebook or a similar contacts management application, and the caller's device calls the number stored relative to the callee's name in the phonebook.
In some cases, a caller may not know the callee or a callee's number. A caller can use a directory service, whereby the caller identifies the intended callee by name, address, or both, and the directory service provides the callee's number to the caller, connects the call between the caller and the callee, or both.
The illustrative embodiments recognize that for the directory service to work using only the address, the callee's number has to be permanently associated with that address, even if the number is assigned to a mobile device. In other words, if a callee has to be reached only by knowing the callee's address, the callee's number must be unchangeably associated with the address, even if the device associated with the number is mobile.
The illustrative embodiments recognize that presently, there is no available method by which a caller could call any callee who may be present at a given location at a given time. In other words, if a caller were interested in calling anyone who may be present at or around a specified geographical location, during a given period, the caller will be able to call that location only if either a number is permanently associated with that location and the caller calls that number, or the caller calls a specific known callee whose presence at the location is a known fact to the caller.
The illustrative embodiments recognize that such a deficiency in the present telecommunications systems is severely limiting in many circumstances. The illustrative embodiments recognize that under certain circumstances, a caller may want to call any callee who not only is present at a location at a given time, but also satisfies one or more other conditions. Such a condition need not be related to a time of the presence of the callee at the location. Such a condition also need not be related to the location where the callee is present.
For example, a condition may be that the callee not be intoxicated while the callee is present at a location at a time. Another example condition may be that the callee should have a certain access privilege to a space, object, or data. As can be seen from these examples, these are conditions on a state or characteristic of the callee, regardless of the location and time of the unknown callee, for calling the unknown callee. Hereinafter, these types of conditions that qualify a callee on bases other than the location of the callee and a time at which the callee is present at that location are called callee conditions.
In some cases, a callee condition can be an event. For example, an event-type callee condition may be that the callee should have finished (or started) an activity—the finishing (or starting) of the activity being an event, which forms the callee condition and qualifies the callee. Similarly, another example event-type callee condition may be that the callee should occupy a certain position-range in a queue, in other words, partially completed an activity to a specified degree—the partial completion of the activity to the specified degree being an event, which forms the callee condition and qualifies the callee.
These examples of callee conditions are not intended to be limiting. From this disclosure, those of ordinary skill in the art will be able to conceive many other callee conditions their types, and the same are contemplated within the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
Different callees may be present at a location at different times. Thus, a callee has to satisfy a two-part selection method to qualify as a callee to receive the call that is directed to the location—(i) the callee has to be someone who is present at a location and time identified by a caller, and (ii) the callee has to satisfy a callee condition. Furthermore, a callee condition may be a set of conditions, from which the qualification process requires that the callee satisfy at least a subset of callee conditions.
For example, a set of callee condition may include one callee condition that the callee have at least a specified level of access to a space, object, or data, as described earlier, and another callee condition that the callee have at least a membership or a certain rank in a team or organization. Many other examples of such sets of callee conditions will become conceivable from this disclosure to those of ordinary skill in the art, and the same are contemplated within the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
Within the scope of the illustrative embodiments, any number of callee conditions can be included in a set of callee conditions. Furthermore, a callee condition in a set can depend on another callee condition in the set, e.g., in a daisy-chained manner. For example, consider the two callee conditions in the above example set. The two conditions can be in a dependent relationship such that a callee has to first satisfy the callee condition that the callee have at least a membership or a certain rank in a team or organization. Once a suitable callee has been identified, who is present at the given location at the given time, and who has at least the membership or the certain rank in a given team or organization, then that callee has to be further qualified by determining whether that callee has at least the specified level of access to the specified space, object, or data.
Different callee conditions in a set of callee conditions can be configured in a simple dependency chain as in the example above, or in a dependency hierarchy of greater complexity. For example, a callee condition in a set can depend upon the satisfaction of more than one other callee conditions in the set, upon different degrees of satisfaction of one or more different callee conditions in the set, upon the satisfaction of any of several alternative callee conditions in the set, upon different degrees of satisfaction of one or more alternative callee conditions in the set, and many other possible variations of dependency hierarchy. These and other similarly purposed hierarchies of dependencies amongst the callee conditions in a set of callee conditions are contemplated within the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
The illustrative embodiments recognize that presently available methods of calling are severely limited in establishing a call in these and other similar circumstances. Thus, a solution for calling one or more transient callees or callee-associated mobile devices based on a mobile device's location and a condition being satisfied is needed and will be beneficial.